The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-11-05
OF NO BENEFIT.


Alcohol Is Not a Liie-Sustaining Medi-
enc, Does Not Act Az u Food, and Does
Not Nourish the Tis.ues-Facts Well
| Establish and WelI-KnOwn to Tenn
| perance Advocates.
| An editorial in the Open Court dem
onstrates how far the Temperance re-
form has outstripped the knowledge,
as well as the compass, of its oppo-
nents. The article in question might
have been true twenty-five years ago,
but now it is greatly behind the times.
The author says: Temperance advo-
C; ties miss valuable assertions made in
their favor by specialists, because such
things are not sought for in the scien-
titic writings where they abound" He
certainly can not have read DIR. Rich
ardson's Cantor Lectures, Hargreave's
Alcohol and Science, nor be reader of
DR., Crothers Jouyna' of he6rSety, and
Dr.. Burne.t's Journal of Heredity. to
say nothing of less pretentious works,
or he would know that Temperance
advocates are quite as familiar as him.
self with the testimony of Michel,
Guslain, Lunicr and Lord Shaftesbury.
His statements concerning alcoholic
medication show him to be quite as far
behind the times. He says that lin
continued fevers, such as typhoid,
whisky, in suitable doses, is generally
regarded by medical practitioners, to
be the DEMONSTRATING medicine" He
evidently has not heard the testimony
Of DR.. N. S. Davis, who was chosen to
preside over the late International
Medical Congress because he is con-
fessedly the highest medical authority
in America, and who declares that in
his fifty years practice he has never
found one case of disease. and no
emergency arising from accident that
he could not treat more successfully
without any form of f; rmented or dis
distilled liquors than with them" This
sentiment he reiterated in his address
on taking the chair at the late Medical
Congross In his latest published
work, he devotes an entire chapter
to non-alcholic med cation, taking
up, among other things. the
case of continued fevers," and
showing how they can be
more successfully treated without alco-
hol than with it. Nor does he stand
alone in this belief; hundreds of Amer
lean physicians are ranging themselves
on his side, while in England the num-
Der of leading physicians who believe
in non-alcoholic medication is much
greater than upon this side the water
| Among them we mention DR.. Benie-
min Ward Richardson, who has proba-
bly, made the most exhaustive study of
the effect of alcohol upon the human
system of any man living; entering
upon the study as firm believer in its
efficacy as the editor of the open Court,
but after twenty-five years of such
investigation, he is as firmly convinced
rs Dr. Davis himself of the harmful
ness of alcohol. however administered;
the late DIR. Carpenter, whose physi-
ology is a standard in all medical col
loges; Sir Andrew Clark, physician to
Queen Victoria; Sir Henry Thompson,
Sir William Gull, Dr.. james Edmunds,
and scores of others whose names car
ry weight with physicians on both
sides the Atlantic.
DR.. james Elmunds has proven his
faith by his works, in conducting his
great hospital in London upon strictly
non-alcoholic principles, and the rec
orls show that during the thirteen
years Of its existence, the death-rate
under this treatment has averaged four
and a half per cent. less than in any
hospital in London, receiving the same
class of patients and treating them
with alcohol. The typhoid fever wards
have been especially noted, rs this dis
case is said to be the one in which al
coholIcs are absolutely Indispensable,
and the result is that theinumber of
racOveries under non-alcoholic treat
ment is-eyen greater than the av-
cragc per cent ,..-t,. ..-.#t. be-.
The same fact is demonstrated by
the records of the National Temperance
Hospital IN this city, and also the fact
that the most serious cases of "col-
lapse" after severe operations, rs well
as in typhoid fever. m k much bet
ter and quicker recovery without al
cohoi thun with IL This Woman's and
Childrsn's Hospital OK Chicago, under